Quit stalling on tax board cuts

It's time state lawmakers stop procrastinating on their two-year-old promise to eliminate dozens of unnecessary county tax board jobs.
The tax board posts are the pork positions the legislators created in 2004, just as the volume of property tax appeals heard by the boards was plummeting to a 15-year low. Key lawmakers have vowed to take back the jobs, which offer lucrative state pensions and health benefits for part-time work, ever since. But they never quite seem to get around to it.
Now the chief excuse-maker is Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Passaic), who chairs the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Pou says she worries the economic downturn will increase property tax appeals and the county tax boards will need those extra patronage jobs to handle the rush.
Pou and her colleagues should be more worried about showing voters they realize the poor economy makes cutting government fat all the more important. Eliminating the tax board jobs is a small step in that direction.